Amazon’s leaked blueprint to replace 600,000 workers with robots

Amazon is currently hiring 250,000 workers to survive the upcoming holiday rush. Behind closed doors, however, executives are actively mapping out how to make hundreds of thousands of those roles disappear.

According to leaked internal documents obtained by The New York Times, Amazon's robotics division aims to eventually automate 75% of its warehouse operations. By relying on machines to sort and haul packages, the company projects it can avoid hiring at least 160,000 workers by 2027.

Even more striking: while Amazon plans to double the volume of items it sells by 2033, leadership believes automation could ultimately save them from having to hire 600,000 people, effectively replacing over 500,000 human jobs.

Softening the blow with 'cobots'

Amazon currently employs about 1.2 million people across the United States. Cutting warehouse headcounts at scale could easily trigger severe public backlash.

To manage the narrative, insiders reportedly suggested rebranding the machines as "cobots"—short for collaborative robots. The idea is simple: frame the hardware as helpful teammates working alongside humans rather than mechanical replacements designed to take their paychecks.

Financial estimates indicate that this aggressive automation drive could save the e-commerce giant billions of dollars in labor costs within just two years.

Pushing back on leaked roadmaps

Amazon quickly moved into damage-control mode following the report. A company spokesperson told the Daily News that the leaked documents paint an incomplete and misleading picture, reflecting the narrow ambitions of a single robotics team rather than corporate-wide hiring policy.

The spokesperson also pointed out that no company has created more American jobs over the past decade than Amazon.

Meanwhile, Udit Madan, Vice President of Worldwide Operations, argued that automation frees workers from heavy lifting and creates higher-paying technical roles. He noted that nearly 5,000 employees have graduated from Amazon's mechatronics apprenticeship program since 2019.

Why it matters

For warehouse workers, the clock is ticking faster than expected. While technical apprenticeship programs sound promising on paper, retraining 5,000 people over several years is a drop in the bucket compared to a workforce of over a million. Frontline fulfillment jobs are rapidly shifting from stable long-term employment into short-lived seasonal gigs.

Across the logistics industry, Amazon is setting a ruthless operational benchmark. If automated warehouses can double output without expanding headcount, every competing retailer will be forced to pour capital into robotics simply to keep up on delivery speeds and operating margins.

In our view, attempting to soften mass automation by calling machines "cobots" feels more like slick PR than a genuine collaborative strategy. Cutting billions in payroll will delight Wall Street, but replacing half a million workers while running goodwill charity parades risks drawing sharp scrutiny from regulators and labor advocates alike.